Translucency (thin walled SSS) element

[algato]

Hello Lele,
thank you for your support.

C<RD'mTWSSS'>.L works fantastically, but currently with the clear restriction that the formula refers to a single shader.
The problem is, a typical scener, has several types of trees, bushes and flowers. That is a long list of shaders using tw-sss, for each of which one would have to build a separate LPE.

Is there a way to write the formula globally?
or, if it is not possible to use the LPE globally, to write several shader names in the formula.

Kind regards
algato

[^Lele^]

Yes, of course you can use it globally, simply by removing the material selection, however that won't work as the path is diffuse (so it will contain also all the other diffuse contributions from all the rest of the shaders.).
You *will* need a material select or an LPE per shader, or geometry, to be able to split the contributions.
It's all quite easy to script, and the docs and LPE builder offer maxscript samples.

Otherwise, as the RE samples show, you can easily chain material or object names within the same LPE.
f.e.:

C<RD['mMaterial #1''mMaterial #2']>L

Notice you may need further masks to be able to split them in post.

[Arch.Hany]

no body likes coding and writing stuff like that
a render element that calculates translucency throughout the scene would be a very important addition

i have attached an example of this beautiful element from corona
when used with a screen blending mode for example you can control how much translucent the foliage looks for example
you could also color correct at as you like

[^Lele^]

use a material select.

[Arch.Hany]

i will have to select every material in scene, sometimes there are around hundered ones, that will take forever

[^Lele^]

So it will separating hundreds of translucent contributions from different materials within a single RE.
There are scripted tools that help with these kind of mass operations in Max.
You can learn a workflow that's impossible in Corona, or wait for a solution from us, as you please.
We can't give you a time frame, sadly.

[Joelaff]

Cryptomatte will of course let you make all those selections if you please. But mattes don't get the translucency information only of course.

[Arch.Hany]

its a good thing that you have workflows that gives control and expand features

but that shouldn't be essential to get the basic and important features, what's the benefit of having render elements to begin with then ?!

for corona its a good thing its impossible, because the feature is already there, they already provide an easy and working solution without needing to learn new workflows

there must be some impossible workflows for vray too, the point is to give users the simple features they need in an easy and consistent way

what we need to know for vray is
- is a working transluency render element in plan ?
- is there someone working on this ?
- can it be done ?

[^Lele^]

We already answered the question: we'll look into it.
As there are functional workarounds (this has been done successfully for twentyfive years or thereabout from architecture to prodviz to film.), and the shading pipeline is different between the products, we can make no other promise, be it of timing, or doability.
If you like Corona's better than our workflow, feel free to use it, we take no offence.

[Arch.Hany]

If you like Corona's better than our workflow, feel free to use it, we take no offence.

that really is the worst answer a vray user can get ..

[^Lele^]

that really is the worst answer a vray user can get ..

As you're out for polemics, I'll ignore you from now on.

[Arch.Hany]

Not like i was after your attention to begin with

[^Lele^]

One thing i have to add to the workflow, the 2sided is currently working in a material select RE if it's put as the base for a blend material.
If plugged directly it won't show up, while the sub-materials and the optional blend texture show up just fine in material and texture select REs.
There is no appreciable performance loss due to this, but it can definitely be a bit cumbersome to do manually if one has many 2sided instances (it's a line of scripting, however.).

This is a suspicious behaviour and it's being investigated, as the expectation is for it to work directly.

[DanSHP]

+1 for a translucency RE

[brunonz]

One thing i have to add to the workflow, the 2sided is currently working in a material select RE if it's put as the base for a blend material.
If plugged directly it won't show up, while the sub-materials and the optional blend texture show up just fine in material and texture select REs.
There is no appreciable performance loss due to this, but it can definitely be a bit cumbersome to do manually if one has many 2sided instances (it's a line of scripting, however.).

This is a suspicious behaviour and it's being investigated, as the expectation is for it to work directly.

Hey Lele, thanks for all the explanation and hard work.

Just want to revive this thread. Anyone inside Chaos working on this at the moment?

Tks!